


I'm a patient demon

by CelestiaKnight



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Future Fic, It gets a little heated near the end, Love Confessions, Still SFW, rin and shiemi find themselves alone in a manor again, their friends don't know what privacy is, they're still dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:08:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25737049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelestiaKnight/pseuds/CelestiaKnight
Summary: “Pretty, innit?,” he whispered, as if speaking louder would disturb the scene.“Yeah,” she nodded with a light smile. “I’m glad you called me up here, this is beautiful… No wonder they built this mansion in this remote location.”“Yeah… truly beautiful…”She blinked. Something about the softness of that voice… He wasn’t speaking about the landscape anymore. Slowly, she turned to face him. He was looking at her. But, as soon as she met his gaze and realized what he had meant, he turned away and back ahead. She couldn’t look away now.
Relationships: Moriyama Shiemi/Okumura Rin
Comments: 8
Kudos: 52





	I'm a patient demon

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading!  
> This fandom needs more RinShi love and I am here to provide it en masse. We're starting with this one-shot! It's a bit of a long read, so pick a snack, your favourite drink, and read away! Comments and feedback are always appreciated! If people like it enough, I might make a sequel, I've got plenty of ideas where this came from.  
> Enjoy!

_ Flames licked the sky that night. They rose from the depths of the earth, engulfed all and burned a screaming world into submission. _

_ They had done all they had to do, they had all done their parts and fulfilled their roles… except him. He was not done yet, and she could see it in his frame, the tension, the excitement, the fear, the anger. _

_ From atop Johann Faust’s mansion at the highest peak of True Cross Town, they watched it all happen, and he stood before them, looking down at the work of his father. She would remember that sight always. How could she ever forget? The impatient and rash boy she had met a year ago, stumbling through the gate of her garden, was long gone, and instead stood both a human and a demon who was forced to grow up into a man. Untamed fiery white hair flying in the heated wind as though living flames, a black and red special corps exorcist coat singed and battered and covered in blood. Arms to his sides, hands shaking themselves into fists, and his tail, a line of white frozen along the ground. He wasn’t moving, like he wasn’t even real, an illusion. _

_ It was snowing that night, she remembered. Or had it been ashes? _

_ “Okumura,” came Suguro-kun’s voice beside her, pulling her out of her daze. _

_ She saw his head move, and his tail gave a small but sharp flick, coiling downward. She heard him chuckle. It was dry, and saddened. Resolved. _

_ “I guess… I guess this is it, huh?” _

_ His arms shook, his hands went to his coat and grabbed at it, blackened nails digging into the fabric, and she made a move to approach him, but then he turned around to look at them. His eyes lingered on each of them, on Suguro, on Kamiki, on Miwa, on Shima, on Yukio, and, finally, they stopped on her. She felt an immense sadness wash over her being, it gripped and coiled around her heart like a constricting snake. This was a goodbye. He was looking at them one last time, because he didn’t believe he would survive this day. She could tell in those eyes, he was resolute; determined to go and succeed, or die trying. _

_ She took a few steps, and Yuki-chan’s voice came from behind her. _

_ “Nii-san, you don’t have t-” _

_ The flames rose behind him, their brightness forcing her eyes to squint, and when she looked again, he was smiling. _

_ “Yukio, look after everyone, okay? And don’t do anything reckless while I’m gone, or else I’m gonna beat you up again!” _

_ He took a few steps back, and she took more steps forward. _

_ “Okumura!” _

_ “Rin, wait!” _

_ “Okumura, hold on a second!” _

_ His grin widened, his habitual toothy smile came back, and it was like all was as it was only a few months ago. _

_ “Thanks for everything, guys! You’ve been the best people I could have hoped to meet. But I gotta go have a talk with good ol’ pops, so… I’ll see you all later.” _

_ She couldn’t hold it anymore. She ran and tripped and suddenly flung her arms around him, keeping him locked in place. He didn’t fight back, even as she dug her face in his shoulder and shook her head wildly. _

_ “Rin! Y-you don’t have to go!,” she denied in a pitiful cry, even though she knew it was a lie. He had to go. “We can find a way to fight him together, all of us! We can help you, we can do this as a team, we can stop the Blue Night together, we can...” _

_ She remembered him not saying a thing for what felt like an eternity. Had he been considering the option? Or had he just been looking down at her, this fool who thought things could still go differently, with a disapproving stare? No, Rin wouldn’t. Not the one he was at that time. She felt his arms wiggle out of her hold, and he held her back. She remembered the feeling of his warm but calloused hands, one was on her back, the other in her hair, he was so gentle with her, like he was afraid she’d break if he held on too tightly. She remembered hearing him take a deep breath by the nose, and feeling something soft rub against her crown. The sound had been the same as one of the happy noises he made when he slept peacefully, with his eyes half-closed and a trickle of drool rolling down his chin. _

_ “Shiemi.” _

_ He had the same gentle tone of voice he had when he had first confessed his feelings for her.  _ I like you too,  _ he had said in that voice. _

_ “I… I’ll see you later too, okay?” _

_ She started crying, she couldn’t stop herself. She remembered the cold void between them when he pulled her away, she had been clinging to his arms and shaking her head, repeating insanities she couldn’t remember. But she did recall meeting his eyes and seeing his smile, and suddenly she just… knew. _

_ It would all be okay. A million shades of blue made his eyes spiral and shine, and all she recalled clearly was seeing them grow closer before a warm and soft feeling took over her lips. She sighed the sadness away, and clung tighter to him with hope. It would all be okay, because this wasn’t a farewell kiss. It was chaste, it was gentle and warm, and all she could see behind her closed eyelids was his life, his flames, flooding into her like oil into her shape, and she knew it would all be okay because he was here, and he would be back later. This wasn’t a farewell kiss. It was a promise he’d be back. _

_ It ended too soon, she felt his hand linger on her cheek, his hardened thumb rub against her cheekbone, and when she opened her eyes again, he was already running. She couldn’t remember if she called out his name as his body was engulfed in flames, as horns and claws grew where gentleness had been. He leaped off the peak of True Cross Academy, becoming nothing but a blue light flying right into a burning furnace, and she soon lost sight of him as the fires of Hell grew ever higher and swallowed their son. _

_ She remembered crumbling down to her shaking knees, and Izumo running to her side. _

* * *

The broken down estate looked like it came right out of an old horror movie. From what Shiemi could see in the document provided to her for the mission, it was an old style house nestled in a valley between two small mountains off in the middle of nowhere, lost between Niigata and Sendai, large and more spread out on ground level than tall. According to the briefing, this estate was important to the locals due to the history of the place, but it had been overrun by ghosts and mournful spiritual apparitions when the Gehenna Gate had opened, and it was only recently that they turned to the Order to cleanse the estate once and for all.

All in all, a simple mission, all things considered. All that would need to be done was a ritual to send the spirits to rest - without angering them - and dissipate their presence in Assiah, and that would be it, considering there wasn’t anything else hiding in this rather rundown manor. Just looking at the picture made her shiver, but she also smiled, for the sight of the old house reminded her of another old style house she had once been in for a simple cleaning mission with a certain someone…

She was waiting for that someone now. The lower first-class tamer was at the station, the train was already there and would leave soon, but he was late… She looked around nervously, self-consciously holding a fold of her exorcist uniform. Would she need to call him to make sure he’d be there? She was used to his being late, but the train would leave soon, and she would hate to have to leave without him, especially since she appreciated having him around for this mission. His company was one she missed dearly.

She looked up one last time, sadly making up her mind that she’d have to go alone, when she suddenly caught sight of a familiar black coat and a waving hand, and she smiled brightly, waving her hand back.

“Rin!,” she called as he ran over, seemingly out of breath. “You came in time! Let’s go, the train will leave soon!”

“Sorry,” he apologized in a huff as he followed her through the opened doors, “Yukio caught me last minute for some fun paperwork that I apparently forgot about. Damn mole-face almost made me miss the bus here…”

They quickly found a pair of empty seats, and the train left the station shortly after they had settled in. Shiemi was able to breathe out a sigh of relief. Looks like she wouldn’t be stuck alone in that dark manor after all! Not that she was completely alone with Nee around, but this was different. Maybe she spent too much time at the demon farm, she thought to herself. When was the last time she had had decent human companionship?

She looked toward her old friend, who was looking outside the window, and smiled. She tapped him on the arm to get his attention and his electric blue eyes turned to her.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had a mission together,” she said, receiving a smirk and a nod in response.

“Yeah,” Rin chuckled, scratching at his stubble, “it’s been a hot minute. What was our last one?”

“Uhm… Oh! The displeased river dragon in the countryside last summer, remember? His river was clogged up with trash, and we had to go in ourselves and fish it all out,” they both laughed as she finished the retelling, and she saw Rin’s tail slap against his seat.

“Oh yeah! Man, that dragon was bossy, yelling at us to get that garbage out and whatnot. You’d think he could have done it himself with six legs, huh? Too high and mighty for that!”

They recounted previous missions and made themselves comfortable for the ride, and it was like it was only yesterday that they had last met, much to Shiemi’s joy. It seemed that no matter how much time passed between their meetings and hang-outs, they were still as close as they’d always been. When the subject came back to their current mission, she asked:

“Have you seen the estate in the document?”

“I… might have glanced at it. Anything special about it?”

“Not really, except… Hold on,” she said, leaning over to fish the document out of her bag between her legs, which she gave to him for him to look over. “Doesn’t it remind you of something? When we were still Exwires…”

It took a moment, but his low expression lifted and he smirked, then laughed.

“You mean that cleaning mission in that house I ended up blowing up? That was a fun one. We got stuck under all that rubble, and… yeah…”

He flipped through the document, seemingly trying to look away, and she quickly realized why. Yes, of course, she hadn’t thought about it, but that had indeed been when…

She looked at him fondly, attentively. He was twenty-three now, and his facial traits had sharpened in all the right places, but the short, seafoamy pale stubble he was cultivating along his chin and jaw and his pierced ears gave him an older, rougher edge that she didn’t dislike. He still wore his hair short, but it had grown slightly since last she saw him and he was now tying the long ends in a short ponytail, with loose strands cradling his face. Curvy horns as pale as his skin were poking their way out of the bangs on his forehead, coiling upward and backward in shape. It was suspected they would keep growing, though to what length no physician could tell. His eyes were just as intense as they’d always been, with thick eyebrows naturally furrowed low, and she saw his irises spiral back and forth between jagged edges and smooth roundness as his thoughts spiralled with them. She had always been fascinated by his eyes, and that fact hadn’t changed eight years after first meeting him.

Her hand rose up to touch his left arm again, but it met with a hard, metallic surface that she should have been used to by now. Still, she left her hand on it and looked intently at his face until he looked down at her and met her eyes once more. She smiled kindly at him and squeezed the cold metallic arm.

“Let’s make this mission a good one to remember too, okay Rin?”

He appeared surprised at her statement, but he smiled right back like it was the most natural thing to do, and his remaining real hand laid itself on hers after dropping the document on his lap.

“Sure thing! I hope you’re better at handling all-nighters because this ritual we gotta do around the house? At least ten hours long.”

Shiemi nervously laughed. No, she was not better at handling all-nighters.

* * *

The estate looked even worse in person. Not as bad as that first house he had blown up, but bad nonetheless.

The bus had dropped them off at the local village, a small mountain hamlet full of charm and old folks who had almost welcomed the Exorcists like heroes, crowding around them and begging them to free the souls of their ancestors trapped in the estate. Shiemi didn’t do well with praise, but as far as Rin was concerned, he was glad to be viewed this way for once; he may have been the one who fought the King of Demons and sent his spirit back to Gehenna eight years ago, people still viewed him by his horns and tail first, and his rank and personality later. He never complained, though, because by now he was used to it. This, however, was nice.

The village lead - an old woman in her eighties who had called upon the Order - guided them out of the village and showed them the way to the estate, which was a bit too far into the mountains for her to climb there and back, so they went on their own with a promise to restore the place to its rightful peace. However, once Shiemi caught sight of it and pointed at it in the distance, they were even more put off by the state of the place. Vines and lush vegetation was already reclaiming the house en masse, as if it had been in this state for decades instead of just a few years, climbing through windows and tearing down walls. The roof looked ready to collapse in some parts, and some sections of the house further toward the sides were entirely inaccessible due to the vines and roots.

Traveling here had taken all day and it was already quite late in the afternoon, and because they were in the mountains, the sun was already hidden behind the landscape. The air was loaded with humidity and fog, draping over the estate like a dome of white, like they were inside a cloud. The closer they approached, the more Rin’s senses tingled; there were more than mere ghosts here, and even Shiemi could tell right away.

“It might be decalps,” she said when she took in the sight of the roots. “Look, there’s greenmen everywhere here!”

The little golem creatures ran off at the sight of the two Exorcists, diving beneath floorboards and toward the woods surrounding the estate, and Rin sighed over their little squeals, scratching the back of his neck.

“Good thing they chose Tamers for this, huh?,” he joked, walking up to the front door. “Let’s search the house first and round up all the ghosts, I feel a lot of them in here. Then we’ll set up the ritual and clean up the decalps after. That alright?”

“It sounds like a good plan to me,” Shiemi couldn’t help a little shake in her voice as she followed him through the doors and into the darkness of the interior.

Stepping inside was like stepping in an old school Japanese horror movie, and Rin wasn’t sure if he should be excited by this fact or worried. Everything was dark and rotted, furniture that had been left behind thrown haphazardly around the entrance hall and paper walls torn down, thresholds and wooden beams overgrown with moss and cobwebs. The ambiance was heavy, almost choking. He felt Shiemi scoot closer to him to where he felt her brush against his arm, and in response he wrapped the tip of his tail around her wrist; he knew she liked the fluffy end (she would always stroke it whenever they hung out and watched movies together and with the others), and knew it would help her relax. It had the desired effect and he felt her fingers mechanically go through his tail fur as they ventured deeper into the dilapidated manor, careful of creaking floors.

In their first round of the estate, through its first and second floors and its basement, they found and counted at least a dozen different ghosts, each refusing to see them and some even threatening them. Though they had no details on what exactly could have trapped these ghosts here of all places, they figured sending them to their proper rest took first priority over an investigation into the history of the manor, and Rin and Shiemi began the preparations for the ritual. It was a fairly simple one, but a ritual that was best handled by more than one person. A magic circle and runes were to be set in all four corners of the infected area along with a blessed candle that was to burn all through the night. An Aria was to chant three specific mantras to each of the candles, and the ghosts would be attracted to the circles, which would dissipate their ghostly particles and set them free.

Working as a team, Shiemi drew all of the circles while Rin chanted the mantras, and when all the candles were lit, they left them alone to burn through the night. They then immediately traveled to the source of all the overgrown vegetation taking over the estate. The mansion had an inner courtyard whose entry was completely blocked off by roots and fallen debris, but it was nothing Rin couldn’t handle; he effortlessly lifted broken beams and dressers and set them aside, and helped Shiemi jump over the roots by taking her on his shoulder. Once they both leaped over the wall of bark, they immediately located the problem. There was no decalp. It was an ent.

A very large and tall gnarled tree sat at the center of the courtyard, its twisted roots taking over all the available space, and its thick bark was coiled and knotted into a most ugly face, one that expressed an intense discomfort and displeasure. Rin set Shiemi down, and together they carefully and slowly walked up to the ent, careful not to step on its roots. By now they knew how to deal with those demons; contrary to popular belief, you could exorcise it without burning it to the ground. Given you had the son of Satan and a Nephilim of Shemihaza on your team, which, to be fair, wasn’t easy to come by. While Rin would have had prefered to deal with a decalp instead - they were easier to talk to as ents proved to be stubborn in most cases - he still smirked to himself in confidence as he approached the groaning tree, a step in front of Shiemi as to shield her should it attempt anything.

“Good evening, O great ent,” Shiemi spoke with a clear yet gentle voice, and Rin watched as the tree’s hollow eyes grew when it noticed their presence. “We’ve come to help y-”

“ _ Hunnnnngryyyyyyyy _ ,” came the ent’s complaint, its voice nothing short of an ear scratching rattling noise to Rin’s ears, who was the only one of the two who could hear it. “ _ Huuuuuumaaaaaaaaannssssss… no come… Hunnnngerrrrrrrr… un… bearableeeeeeeeeee… _ ”

“Huh,” came out of Rin’s mouth, causing Shiemi to turn to him in alarm.

“What did it say?”

“He’s  _ really _ hungry.”

“Oh no…”

That wasn’t good. They could deal with ents who could be reasoned with, who had had their fill and were willing to listen, but those who didn’t were often the worst cases. This one was already growing restless, its roots were moving and coiling around them, its crown shaking as leaves and vines fell and tumbled down all around. Shiemi took a step forward. She looked up at the giant tree and bowed down, trying to show her respects to the restless spirit.

“I am sorry, but no humans will come if you stay here. You can’t remain here.”

“ _ Noooo leaaaaaaave… Stayyyyyyyy… hooooomeeeeee… _ ”

“He doesn’t want to, Shiemi,” warned Rin, hand on Kurikara’s hilt at his belt. “Be careful.”

Shiemi’s frown deepened and she locked her green eyes on the demon, doing her best to stand her ground despite the shaking and thrashing happening around them.

“You can’t stay here,” she repeated to the tree. “Let us help you, we can stop your hunger. Please, calm yourself…”

The tree, however, wasn’t listening, and suddenly its roots rose and coiled in the air, raising dirt and dust as it swung upward… and dove right down toward Shiemi. Before she could even register it, however, Rin acted. With a single slash of his blade of flames, the roots were reduced to burning masses that recoiled on themselves, causing the tree to screech and writhe in agony. Standing beside Shiemi, Rin took a step in front of her and urged her to stand back with his arm, his horns glowing with blue flames as he observed the tree. He kept his flames from spreading, keeping his eyes locked on them so they wouldn’t spread to the rest of the estate - this house would not end up like the other - but by focussing on this, he didn’t see the smaller root coiling around his ankle before it was too late, and suddenly he was dangling in the air upside down.

“Woah!,” he gasped out as he was flung from left to right and his world started spinning. “Shiemi! Exorcise it! Daah! It ain’t gonna listen- woaaah!”

He could hardly see what was happening on the ground, but while he was being flung in all directions, he tried to get his bearings and spotted where his flames were, spreading up the bark of the tree. Holding out Kurikara toward them as best he could, he forced them to die down and disappear; angering it further would only put Shiemi in more danger.

It all ended sooner than he expected. Suddenly, the root holding him let him go mid-swing and he was flung disgracefully through the air with a gasp. He landed directly on his left side somewhere in the dirt, but he wasted no time in thinking about his aching left arm and rose to see where Shiemi was… only to relax and smirk. She was kneeling at the base of the tree, both her hands on its bark, and the tree… was slowly easing back into normalcy. Its roots stopped moving, its mangled and distorted face eased and faded, and slowly but surely, its spirit was being repressed, forced into slumber by a daughter of Creation. Rin sighed, stood up and sheathed his sword.

He stood there a moment, looking at his old friend, simply smiling. She would never cease to amaze him. That was exactly why he had requested to be paired with her for this mission. Originally, he was meant to go alone, but for this one time… he didn’t want to be by himself. He had made a good choice, in his personal opinion. Izumo did let him know that Shiemi had been locking herself at the demon farm and getting lost in her job as a cram school teacher, so she had been his first choice. For that, and for other reasons.

While he walked up to her, the tree completely ceased moving, and by the time he was behind her, Shiemi took her hands away from the trunk with a deep breath. Seeing as she was still kneeling and breathing heavily, he figured she overused her powers, as always, and he kneeled beside her, settling a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him with exhaustion all over her flushed face and he smiled warmly.

“What would I do without you,” he teased, glad to be rewarded with a giggling smile of her own. “Here, grab on to me. You must be beat.”

“I-It’s not so… woah,” she put a hand to her head as a visible wave of dizziness overtook her, and next thing she knew, she was being carried in Rin’s arms bridal style through the courtyard.

The act took her by surprise, but her world was spinning too much to complain, and Rin felt his hearts - both human and demon - flutter in his chest when she laid her head on him, and tried to look ahead as he tightened his grip on her. This was fine, he had done things like this plenty of times. No need to get excited now.

He carried her to a room he had scouted out earlier, deeper inside on the first floor, where they had settled their camp for the night. The small room had been mostly spared the harsh treatment of the rest of the manor, and there were no demons nearby, not above nor underneath, so he felt safe setting her against the wall here on the tatami floor. Because it was dark, he lit both of their lanterns and set them close to each other, acting as though a campfire, and took out his spare blanket from his bag. As he laid it down on Shiemi, who had her head against the wall and was busy taking deep breaths and drinking water, he took a moment to simply… look at her.

He had been avoiding staring at her too long since they met at the train station - an old habit from their high school days - but now, once his gaze collided with her, he found he couldn’t look away. She was just as beautiful as she had always been in his dreams and in his reality, no matter how twisted both could get. It was hard to describe her. If he had to find a comparison, she would be like a flower blooming late at night. With a fair skin that easily burned and turned red under the scorching sun, she, in his honest opinion, glowed at night; under the moonlight, her eyes were green beacons that caught every stray light, and her long golden hair was like a crowning sun around her head. He prefered when she let it loose now that it reached her hips, but for traveling and missions she pulled it all in a tall, tight bun atop her head, as was the case now, though he could see a few strands coming loose.

Almost as a dare to fate, he reached up toward her gorgeous round face and gently pushed the loose strands back into her bun, tucking some behind her ears, and before he pulled back, he rubbed a bit of dirt off her cheek. As he usually did, he pretended he did nothing and pulled back from her, sitting down a couple feet away into the light of the lanterns. He decided that looking into his arm’s technical issues would be better than staring at his old love like a creep, so he pulled his coat’s sleeve on his left arm up to his elbow, where skin met steel, exposing the metal appendage that was now twitching annoyingly.

While the prosthetic was a marvel of demonic technology developed by the engineers at the Vatican - he had been one of the first to test it, as its demonic origins only allowed it to work with demons and half-demons like him - it was still in its early phases of development and would tend to dislike heavy mistreatment, which Rin was often inflicting to it due to his habitual recklessness in battle. It was recklessness that cost him his arm, and yet he still hadn’t learned from it. Ironic. Needless to say, the engineers he often dealt with when it came to his arm were growing tired of telling him to be careful with it. He wouldn’t change his habits for them, he knew that much.

Using a nail grown into a claw, he carefully opened the latch located on the inside of the forearm, revealing a panel of nerves and cords that moved and reacted to each of his fingers’ movements. The walls of the panels were covered in inscribed runes and seals, and a small flicker of a blue flame lit up the inside. He tried to move each finger individually, watching how each nerve reacted, and quickly found the problem as to why his fingers were twitching like this; two nerve endings had been disconnected when he fell. With an annoyed growl purring in his throat, the demon went to work and pulled out a small tool from his belt’s pockets to help him reconnect the nerves. As soon as they made contact with the correct endings, a small shock spread through his arm’s stump, indicating it had worked, and he tested the repairs by flexing his fingers together and one at a time.

It was only then that he realized Shiemi had been staring at him the whole time. He skillfully avoided her eyes and closed the panel, putting away his tool, and rolled his coat to cover the arm again.

“Does it ever hurt?,” came her soft voice, which took him by surprise.

He blinked and stared at his metallic hand for a moment. A shrug was his first answer.

“Sometimes,” he replied in a gruff voice. “Yukio calls it phantom pain. It’s like I can still feel my arm like it was before, but it hurts because it’s not really there. I guess this arm sorta helps with that. So don’t worry. I’m a lot better about it than I was at first.”

A brief memory of sleepless nights dreaming of burning limbs flashed in his mind, and he quickly shelved it away and smiled up at her. He was past all that now.

He stood up promptly, now satisfied with the state of his arm, and gestured his thumb toward the door, turning toward her.

“I’m gonna go scout out the place one more time, just to see if we didn’t miss anything. Stay here until you feel better, I won’t be long. Call me if anything happens, alright?”

She smiled at him sweetly, and he tried to ignore how his guts twisted and flipped at the warmth that face gave him.

“Alright. Be careful, Rin.”

He quickly turned back and left, tail coiling upward behind him as he realized his feelings had never died down. If anything, they were stronger.

* * *

While Rin was away, Shiemi had made their camp a bit more comfortable and clean, and she was now preparing some tea using an electric heater she had brought. They would have to stay here all night until the ritual was complete, so she believed she had brought enough to keep them relaxed in this haunted house. She had been mindlessly picking out the herbs she thought would keep them awake when her walkie-talkie buzzed awake next to her.

_ “Hey Shiemi, do you read?” _

Taken by surprise, she quickly fumbled with the thing and pressed the button as she brought it up to her mouth, replying:

“Yes! Is something wrong?”

_ “Nah, all’s good. You should come up here though, there’s something I wanna show you. I’m on the second floor balcony.” _

Curious, she agreed and put the walkie-talkie away, standing up while leaving the tea set away and turned off. As it was earlier, it was a bit hard to maneuver around the estate due to its state of decay, but subduing the ent had made some of its giant roots dissolve and shrink down to normal sizes, so the main hall’s stairs were free to use. She found Rin exactly where he had said, standing outside along the balcony that encircled the entire house’s exterior, and for a moment, she stood there, watching him.

Rin was leaning his arms comfortably on the wooden railing and staring off into the distance, his pose as relaxed and still as it possibly could be. His tail was lightly brushing along the ground, in a very slow motion, from left to right, and the light movement was almost hypnotic to her. Something in this view reminded her of a now long past memory, a memory that would never leave her, but this time… he was at peace. She saw his head slightly turn to look at something a bit to the side, and she caught sight of his face. His gentle expression confirmed it all.

With a smile latched onto her lips, she walked up to stand next to him on the balcony, and it didn’t take her long to spot what it was he had called her up here to see. From up here, they had a fantastic view of the entire valley; the fog was clearing up, the clouds had gone, and now everything was basked in pale moonlight. The canopy of the trees formed nothing but silhouettes against the depths of the starry sky they laid against, while what remained of the fog snaked between their base like iridescent clouds. In the distance, the flanks of the mountains caught the pale light like a frame to a painting.

She found herself leaning against the railing too, staring wide eyed at the scenery before her. It was comfortably quiet, pigmented only with the sounds of insects and distant owls. Rin’s arm lightly brushed against hers and she felt her face suddenly grow hot with scalding warmth.

“Pretty, innit?,” he whispered, as if speaking louder would disturb the scene.

“Yeah,” she nodded with a light smile. “I’m glad you called me up here, this is beautiful… No wonder they built this mansion in this remote location.”

“Yeah… truly beautiful…”

She blinked. Something about the softness of that voice… He wasn’t speaking about the landscape anymore. Slowly, she turned to face him. He was looking at her. But, as soon as she met his gaze and realized what he had meant, he turned away and back ahead. She couldn’t look away now.

Those things were happening more and more. Little comments about her good work, compliments about her looks, glances her way when she wasn’t looking (or he thought she wasn’t), kind gestures and gentle touches, like pushing her hair behind her ears or even rubbing dirt off her cheek. She would be lying if she pretended not to appreciate these gestures and that attention, but she also didn’t know how to reply to them. It was easy to read about romance stories in fiction and think of ways to reply in made up scenarios in her head - scenarios that often derailed very quickly into something else, much to her embarrassment - but it was a lot harder to get her brain to agree to do it. She knew she wanted to reply to his kindness and the interest he was giving her, but how? It wasn’t like she knew how to actually flirt. Oh no, did she think  _ flirt _ ?

Izumo would probably shake her if she found out she still had insecurities about romance.

For a moment, she looked back ahead at the landscape and quietly listened to the sounds of the night. In the distance, a ghost moaned mournfully as it was dissolved into a candle, hollow cry blending into the breeze. She took a quiet but deep breath through her nose. Here goes nothing, she thought as she lightly stepped to the side, closer to Rin, until their arms were pressed together. Before she could convince herself to stop at that, Shiemi laid her head against his bicep. He was much taller than he used to be, she realized as warmth settled in her stomach and butterflies flew up to flutter around her heart.

Part of her wanted to look up and see his face, to know if she was doing the right thing, but another, louder part of her told her to not move and appreciate the close contact. Rin was warm. Incredibly warm. It always amazed her, no matter how many times she had experienced it again and again. He was like a giant heating pillow. For a moment, her eyes fluttered close as she took in all she could from this moment. Rin’s warmth on her side, the freshness and humidity of the fog-filled valley on her face, Rin’s smoky and spicy smell in her nose, the bubbles boiling in her insides…

There was a rope around her heart, she realized, and it was pulling.

It all ended too soon when a metal hand was gently raised up to lay on her hand, the biting of the cold steel bringing her back to awareness. First looking down at the hand, at the smooth metallic fingers shaped into claws carefully laying atop her own skin, she then looked up to face him. He smiled down at her with what she could only identify as a fond look. He was terribly close to her, but he wasn’t moving closer either. When he spoke, his breath smelled of cinnamon, and his eyes shone like a kaleidoscope of blues, like diamonds underwater. She couldn’t look away. Something about that gaze was pulling at something else deep inside her, something more instinctual than she expected.

“We should go back inside,” he said softly. “Are you hungry?”

She found herself nodding her head without thinking much about whether she was hungry or not, and she reluctantly pulled herself away from his side. Still, all was not lost, for his tail rose up to touch her wrist and she gladly took the end of it as they descended back to their little camp, running her thumb repeatedly through its soft fur all the way there. Shiemi smiled to herself. It was all in the little victories, and she did indeed count herself victorious at that moment.

* * *

Rin felt like his heart could burst out of his chest, in more ways than one, and it drummed into his ears all the way downstairs and all the while he was preparing their meal. Although, meal was a strong word. It consisted of cup noodles (expertly) heated with his flames, a loaf of bread each and some chocolate bars for dessert. Considering they’d only be staying one night, neither of them thought of bringing anything fancier than this, but it seemed to be enough to quell their hunger, or at least Rin thought.

His stomach had been doing so many flips since the balcony, it was hard to feel anything else, even less actual hunger. Still, he ate like nothing was wrong, and they conversed and laughed like all was as it’s always been, and he was happy with that.

His heart had other ideas, though, and he felt it while he laughed at a story about the demon farm through a flicker sneaking its way up to his ear, a snickering whisper he was now used to hearing.

**“C’mon, this is getting long!,”** the flicker sneered, and it was hard to tell whether it was actually annoyed or laughing at him.  **“You’re going all softie again for this girl, it’s disgusting. Thought you were past this! Where’s all your bravado?”**

He felt his jaw lock itself and he focussed on his noodles briefly while he dealt with his literal inner demon, stuffing his mouth with hot food.

_ ‘As if I’d take any flirting advice from you,’ _ he thought harshly.  _ ‘Now shut up, this is important! I can’t rush this, you know.’ _

**“Rush?! You’ve been drooling about her since you were fifteen, you giant baby! Tch! You’re a prince! She’s a Nephilim too, she’s supposed to be your servant, your underling! You could claim her as yours right now and she would have nothing to say about it. I can smell it from her, she wants us, nyuk-nyuk...”**

_ ‘Yeah, no, I won’t do that. Thanks for the advice, but she’s my equal, and there’s no changing that.’ _

**“Hmph! You’re no fun… If I was in charge, I would drop those filthy noodles and pin her to the floor and tear off-”**

Rin did his very best to suppress all the words that followed that statement, trying very hard to appear like all was normal, and thankfully he hadn’t choked on his noodles because Shiemi didn’t notice a thing. He didn’t want to try and explain that.

The night was only beginning, however, and once they were done eating they sat together along the wall, simply talking and enjoying the moments of comfortable silence between them. If Rin was honest, he didn’t care if things remained this way. He would be satisfied knowing they were close friends, knowing that they could still have moments like now, even if things didn’t move past this stage. This was still nice.

And as such, when the flow of their conversation moved on to what they were up to, what their plans for the future were, and what they were hoping out of it, it only felt natural to be honest with her. He was at ease.

“Well, I’m not really sure where it’s all gonna take me, if I’m gonna be honest. For now I’m just climbing the ranks, but… mmh… I’m not sure.”

“Are you still aiming to be Paladin?”

“Oh yeah, for sure!,” he smirked at her, running his metal hand through his hair and briefly exposing the root of his horns. “But… I think my reasons changed. Or at least, some more stuff got added to it, I guess.”

“Oh?,” she sounded surprised, her head slightly tilted. “What do you mean?”

“Well… it’s kinda embarrassing,” he chuckled, letting his pale hair fall back down over his forehead. “The thing is… I’m kinda considering taking over my dad’s monastery?”

Her eyes widened, but before she could get a word in he waved his hands.

“But not as a priest! I’m not really cut out for that, am I, hehe. No, I mean, uh… See, Father Fujimoto’s will said that everything he owned is ours, Yukio and me, and that includes the monastery. He was the owner, and according to his will, when we’d both be eighteen, we’d become the proprietors. So… yeah, it’s been under the Okumura name for a while now, not that anything’s changed with that.”

“You guys never told me about that,” Shiemi awed, growing into an excited smile that gave him butterflies. “That’s great! Do you have plans to do with it?”

“Mmmh… well, kinda?,” he hesitated to tell her, but decided to go along with it. It wouldn’t hurt to get someone else’s point of view. “I was thinking… of maybe turning it into some kind of… sanctuary or shelter or something for half-demons like us. I was thinking of a place where… half-demon kids or adults who have nowhere to go or need guidance would feel safe, you know? I dunno… Yukio and I were really lucky to grow up there, we were safe and protected, and… if I could give that same feeling to a kid who needs it, why not, right? I’d keep my dad’s spirit alive, or something like that…”

She was quiet for a long moment where he was hesitant to look at her, and facing that silence, he added.

“I’m still not sure though, it’s just an idea.”

“Rin… this is amazing!”

He finally turned to look her way and found his breath escaping his lungs quite suddenly. She was entirely turned toward him, sitting on her knees, and she leaned forward to grab his real hand and hold it tightly. God help him, her tiny hands were so smooth.

“That’s a wonderful idea!,” she exclaimed, and he blushed in response.

“Y-you think?”

“Absolutely! I think you should do it! Everyone would be glad to help you,  _ I _ would gladly help you! Does Yuki-chan know?”

“Uh, not yet… I haven’t mentioned it, I was kinda waiting to make up my mind. You… really think it’s a good idea?”

She nodded her head in an excitement that brought a wide grin to his face, and he chuckled, squeezing her hands back in his. He was so fortunate to still have at least one hand to feel this gift of God through.

“Whenever Yukio and I talk about the monastery, it’s mostly just about paperwork and licenses and stuff. It doesn’t look like he’s got any big plans for it other than repairs and restorations, so…”

“I’m sure Yuki-chan will approve your idea! And when you become Paladin, you’ll have even more influence and you can guide those who need it there.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking!,” he laughed. “Guess I’d finally put that whole ‘demon prince’ title to use, huh?”

They both laughed and settled into a comfortable silence where Rin was thinking. He suddenly felt a lot more confident with his ideas than he did previously, and he found himself glad he shared that information with her. With her at his side, he felt like he could do anything, like nothing was impossible. When he looked up at her, she was still holding his hand, but was sitting more relaxed, on her hip with her legs folded to the side. God, she was gorgeous, and he didn’t know where to look. Their eyes met. He smiled, almost mischievously.

“You know what else would work?,” he started, grabbing her attention.

“What?”

“Futsumaya.”

She arched an eyebrow, for a short moment, until she understood what he was getting at and widened her eyes.

“You see what I mean?,” the half-demon smirked. “Just imagine! The Okumura Monastery, partnered with Futsumaya Pharmaceutics, we shelter half-demons and people who need help-”

“And we provide supplies and medicine to help them!,” she finished with a large smile, making him nod in response. “That would be wonderful! I’ll be sure to talk about it with my mom, I know she’ll agree!”

“Hehe! You should maybe wait a bit before talking about it,” he chuckled, scratching the back of his neck and sheepishly looking down at his lap. “At least until I talk about it with Yukio.”

He smiled, almost to himself, and then looked back up at her. Had she gotten closer, or was it his- no, she was definitely closer, she was pressing against his arm. His hand was still being held prisoner in the warmest and softest of cells, and he savoured every moment of it…

* * *

Shiemi couldn’t believe her ears, or her eyes. As he had explained his ideas, Rin’s face had gone through a myriad of emotions, whether he was aware of them or not, each one as distinct and poignant as the rest, and it was fascinating to watch them unfold before her eyes. She felt privy to something only reserved for her, for it was. He hadn’t shared this wish with anyone else but her yet. He wore his heart on his sleeve and handed it to her, and her alone. She felt his rough and calloused thumb run along her knuckles as he gazed up at her. He had the same fond look as earlier, and it acted like a string, tied to her body and her limbs and drawing her in.

“Thank you,” he spoke softly. “You always pull me up when I need it the most. What would I do without… you.”

His fondness was tainted by a grim darkness, a veil briefly floating by, and she wanted to chase it away, for it did not belong on this kind face. An indescribable panic rushed through her like a wave of boiling water when he spoke next.

“I think I would have ended it much sooner without you-”

Shiemi cut him off the only way her body thought how; pulling on the string, she reached up and captured his mouth with her own, drowning the rest of that sentence. Their teeth clinked together harshly and their noses squished together, she winced, but she did not pull away and scooted closer, eyes closed and refusing to look. She had no idea what she was doing, no idea of the art of kissing, but there was no way she was letting him end that sentence. She tried to shape her lips in a way that reminded her of the first time he had kissed her, all those years ago, and she was so nervous she was taking quick breaths through her nose to try and keep calm.

But... just when the thought crossed her mind to let him go because her drumming heart couldn’t take more, their lips only briefly separated before she felt his hand run along her cheek, down her jaw and along her neck, to go and hold the back of her head. Metal fingers touched her chin, feelings of icy cold claws, coaxing her to angle her head just a touch, and their lips met again eagerly. This time, their faces slotted together perfectly like two puzzle pieces finally meeting, and all she could feel was his lips, liquid gold against hers, and the warmth of his breath shared with hers. She didn’t know when his hand had escaped her hold, but now her hands were on him, rising up from his shoulders to wrap around his neck, and she felt every inch of his arm wrap snugly around her back, bringing her closer up against his tall body.

In this new position, their kiss deepened and her head began to spin, spinning in search of more of him, spinning in search of all of him, spinning as she heard him groan and felt it run through their connected mouths, spinning as she sighed and melted into a pile of golden goo under his touch. When she became aware of Rin’s hand slipping under her hair and tugging at her bun, her own hands found their way into his own, fingers carding liberally through his pale and soft locks like she was trying to grab more and more of him, and she felt like she was grasping at a thick and warm ocean of clouds. When her hands found their way to his horns and held on to them, they separated, again only briefly, and a third kiss followed, this one hungrier, this one warmer with flames dancing along his hair, with mouths opening and hands searching, grabbing almost desperately at anything they reached. Everything felt warm and soft and a lot wetter than she imagined, but whatever it was she had been expecting was nowhere near this, and she smiled through the kiss as she found her innocence ironically amusing.

Just like their first kiss, however, it all came to an end abruptly when Shiemi felt one of the demon’s fangs prick her bottom lip, and she lightly yelped in surprise, causing them to separate suddenly. She quickly tasted blood as Rin’s face expressed a pure horror that made her heart clench. She raised her hand up to her lip, sitting back on her haunches as she stuttered:

“I-It’s fine! It’s nothing, it’s just-”

“I’m sorry,” he interrupted, his voice gruff, as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. “I’m really sorry, I uh…”

Without another word, her demon friend brushed his fingers under her jaw again to make her look up at him, and he brought the tissue to her chin first, then up to her lip, cleaning the small drops of blood as they were forming as delicately as he could. They were both quiet for a long time, and Shiemi didn’t know what to do, or say. She wasn’t thinking when she kissed him, and it felt like she wasn’t thinking now either. She kept staring at his sad eyes, but Rin was looking at her mouth the same way he’d guiltily look upon a mess he’d made.

Moments of silence passed between them, even long after the blood had stopped, he was still pressing the handkerchief to her lip, almost mechanically, and she saw something in that quiet action that spoke a million words. With a small sigh, she reached up to cup his face in her hands, and only then did he seem to snap out of it. She almost forced him to meet her eyes.

“It’s okay,” she whispered, caressing those cheeks kindly. “It just took me by surprise, that’s all. It’ll be gone soon.”

She allowed herself to reach up again to press a warm kiss to his lips, short but sweet, and he visibly relaxed.

“It’s okay,” Shiemi repeated, and he leaned in and touched her forehead with his and rubbed their noses together; she melted into his touch and smiled. “It’s alright, Rin…”

“I know why you did this,” he then spoke in a low voice. “Thank you, Shiemi. Thank you…”

Cupping her cheeks as well, he closed the gap between them one more time and kissed her the same way she did, short and warm, before pulling away from her and moving to stand up. She stared at him, surprised at the sudden movement, and watched as her friend bent down on one knee and planted a final peck on her forehead before standing up completely. It was only when it was gone that she realized that his tail had been wrapped around her waist this whole time. She immediately missed it.

“I’ll go take some fresh air,” he said as he was leaving, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “I just need to cool off my flames, I won’t be long.”

And when he vanished through the door, what they’d done finally crashed on Shiemi, who slumped back against the wall with a  _ thump _ , eyes wide.

Well, she thought with an inner laugh, Izumo would be proud of her for finally taking matters into her own hands. The problem was…

What now?

* * *

The mission was a complete success. All the ghosts had been cleared off the grounds of the estate, the ent that had taken roots in its heart was now nothing more than a tree at peace, and any other demon that had taken residence was either cleared or deemed harmless. In the end, the locals were happy, and Rin and Shiemi were able to go back home to Tokyo, satisfied with their work but also exhausted from it. On their way back, they did not talk about what had happened at the mansion, but they also didn’t avoid each other; Rin let her hold his tail as usual, Shiemi kept losing herself in his face, but still they didn’t talk.

That silence on the matter extended for a whole other week to the point of entering awkward territory, their worst enemy. Whenever they’d meet on campus or in the inner circles of the Order, they had no clue how to act. Act like nothing was different? Or act like there was something more? It was driving them both mad, Shiemi especially.

Needless to say, Izumo noticed her behaviour. Of course, Izumo cornered her at the demon farm. Obviously, it did not take long for Shiemi to yield.

“Oh my God,” was the Inari priestess’s only response, her eyes wide and her mouth hung open. “You kissed him?!”

She clapped her hands and raised her head to the sky, as if a prayer had been answered, and clasped her hands on Shiemi’s shoulders to shake her.

“You finally did it!,” Izumo exclaimed, causing Shiemi’s face to burst into hot redness. “So?! I mean, not that I cared that much to begin with, everyone knew you two were gonna do it eventually, but?! So?!”

Shiemi couldn’t help but laugh at her attempt to appear like she didn’t care as much as she actually did, but she ended up biting her lip and shaking her head.

“We still haven’t talked about it,” she admitted. “It’s… awkward between us, and I hate it. I don’t know what to do…”

Izumo gave an  _ umph _ ! and put her fists on her hips, assuming her pose that told her directly that what she was about to say was dreadfully obvious. A couple of greenmen were climbing up her leg as she spoke.

“Are you two really still in that ‘being awkward after a confession’ phase?,” the priestess asked a Shiemi who was hiding her face in her hands in embarrassment. “Call him! I’m not sitting you through another shoujo manga just to have you  _ refuse _ him  _ again _ ! I know you love him, Moriyama Shiemi. So tell him!”

“But what am I supposed to-”

Both girls were startled by a very short music jingle resounding between them, and it took a moment for Shiemi to recognize it as her phone. She fished it out of her pocket and opened it to something she had not been expecting, and seeing her expression, Izumo leaned in to take a look. It was a text from Rin.

_ ‘hey Shiemi, can we talk? are you free to come by my place tonight?’ _

Of course, Shiemi panicked. Of course, Izumo snatched her phone to reply in her place, and what was going on suddenly dawned on Shiemi when her friend gave her back her phone with a victorious smirk and quirked eyebrows.

“Congratulations,” Izumo said, “you have a date tonight. You’re coming to my place first!”

* * *

Whether it was a real date or not didn’t really make a difference. In the end, Rin still came by her house to get her, and in the end Shiemi still found herself at Rin’s apartment. They cooked dinner together (though that was mostly Rin, let’s be real), and as always, his cooking was heavenly. Things felt on the awkward and stuttering side a bit at first, but they very soon found their rhythm and comfort again and things were very much on the casual side afterward for the rest of dinner.

They talked of everything and nothing, but still no sign of that one talk they were both expecting, even after dinner was over and they were picking a movie to watch together.

“If it wasn’t raining that much,” Rin said as he looked through his library of movies, “I’d take you out on a walk. There’s this park nearby that’s great at night. I’ll take you there next time for sure!”

Shiemi took a moment to repeat that sentence in her head, standing around the apartment and looking at all the things Rin had on his shelves, from various trinkets and demonic objects to mementos of all sorts. An entire bookshelf was reserved for framed pictures, and she always loved looking through it. This was his own apartment where he lived with Kuro, but it was comfortably large in size and had two bedrooms, one next to the other. The second one was for when he had guests over, but it was mostly Yukio who ended up using it the most when he visited his brother.

“Oh hey, how about that one?,” Rin called to her, and she came over near him to take a look.

She wasn’t very movie-savvy, but she liked what she was seeing on the cover, so she agreed. Next thing she knew, they were deep in the movie, pressed together on the couch in a darkly lit room, and for the past hour she was basking in nervousness once more. It had been manageable during dinner because of the distance of the chairs, but this? This was exactly like at the estate, except cozier. She was going crazy.

Rin, too, was going mad on his side of the couch. The prince of demons had faced countless foes and stood against eldritch monsters and concepts and emerged victorious before even the God of Gehenna himself. Yet here he was, struggling to keep his heart still as the girl he loved sat next to him on his couch, watching a sappy romantic movie (both their favourites). He kept glancing at her; she was stroking his tail almost mindlessly, and it was incredibly distracting. It was the same sensation as having her hands slip through his hair, and from there, his imagination did the rest, as expected.

They chatted throughout the movie, commenting on the story and amusingly pointing out when demons had been filmed without anyone else noticing them, and by the time the credits were rolling, the two had grown closer together and Shiemi was completely leaning against his side, holding his arm while he supported himself on the armrest. With music playing in the background, Rin looked down at her at the same time she looked up at him, and his heart melted at the smile she sent him. She was sitting comfortably, with her legs tucked up on the couch.

“So, Rin,” she began, her face growing a delicious shade of strawberry as her chin buried itself on his arm. “I think… well… you know. We should talk. About, uhm…”

He smiled back.

“About the estate, yeah,” he finished, receiving a nod in confirmation. “Yeah, I suppose we should, huh?”

He made himself more comfortable and drew a bit closer. The hand belonging to the arm she was holding hostage against her moved to her thigh, the only thing he could reach without moving, and to his fortune, she didn’t move away.

“So,” he started almost casually, “why did you kiss me?”

Her answer was an indecipherable stutter at first, she glanced down at his arm and hid her face for a moment… before slowly raising it again. She stared at his arm, as if she could read something interesting on his skin.

“I… didn’t want you to finish what you started saying then,” was her timid reply. “About… ending it.”

“Oh… but Shiemi, you know I’m long past that now. I was just saying that you helped me through it.”

“Yes, of course, you better! But… I don’t know, I guess a part of me still thinks that if you think too hard about those times, you’d consider it again… You’d think you were still dangerous when you’re the kindest and most gentle person I know… You’d think no one wants you around when I… when I  _ do _ want you around. Always. That’s the reason I kissed you then. To… stop you from thinking those things.”

Her eyes met with his again, and she looked almost sheepish as she added:

“I’m just worried.”

“Worried that I’d leave?,” he asked, and she nodded.

His smile grew and he slightly moved to face her on the couch, his metal hand moving to her arm to rub it lovingly. His head dipped so he was eye level with her.

“Shiemi,” Rin chuckled softly, “I can already assure you, I’m not ever going anywhere.” He shook his head. “Nowhere where you aren’t also going. If you’re not there, there’s no point in going, is it?”

She appeared shocked for a moment, and he took that chance to continue by raising his hand up to cradle her cheek.

“Wanna know why I kissed you back?,” he breathed in a murmur.

She gave another timid nod, her teeth showing as she struggled not to smile and bit her lip. Her grip tightened on his arm. He was so close by now their noses were lightly brushing and they breathed the same air. He smelled of paprika and cardamon.

“Because I’ve loved you since the moment I broke the gate of your garden, Shiemi.”

And he filled the gap between them with a warm and soft kiss, one in which she sighed and melted against in an instant. It didn’t last for long, and when he pulled back, she pulled in, as if trying to find his lips again. He smiled, and laughed when her face became that now familiar beet red.

“I’m still sorry about that by the way,” he chuckled. “I kinda gave you quite a scare then.”

“Oh Rin,” she grinned back, her cheeks burning under his touch, “don’t apologize for that, if you hadn’t broken my garden’s gate, we wouldn’t have met. I wouldn’t be here… I’d still be in my garden, with no one. I owe it all to you, Rin.”

“C’mere,” he scooted her closer on the couch and encouraged her to move up against him while he set his upper back against the armrest, effectively locking both arms around her while she snuggled up to him.

They cuddled like this on the couch for a long time, speaking softly of what they liked about each other and speaking truths upon truths. Shiemi liked the way this had gone. She had always imagined it like a big confession where they both would be embracing under a streetlamp or under the rain, something more dramatic like their first kiss at the end of the world, but this… this was nice. Just the two of them, together on this couch, holding each other as they whispered sweet things between sweet kisses. Rin’s nose brushing her head, her ear pressed against his chest and listening to his calm heartbeats, his tail wrapped around her hips, her hands on his own waist. She didn’t want to move. She didn’t need more.

She was very happy, more than she thought she’d be. It wasn’t an immediate and explosive joy either, simply a constant state of happiness and contentment, with warm bubbles and butterflies floating and popping in her insides every time their lips met, a wave of warmth rising in her chest every time his hands wandered. In her world, nothing could taint this.

Not even this could last forever, however, and eventually they both looked at each other with the same realization; they were falling asleep, the movie had long since come back to the menu, and it was late. Rin rubbed his nose against hers.

“You wanna… stay here tonight?,” he asked, his voice hopeful. “You could take Yukio’s bedroom. If not, I can take you back home…”

She blinked, surprised at how quickly her mind decided for her.

“I want to stay with you.”

He smiled, relieved, and gently sat up with her in his arms. Shiemi realized how sleepy she was when she had trouble keeping her eyes open. She followed Rin around like a ghoul as he showed her the way to the bedroom, holding her hand the entire way, and since she had no pyjamas he gave her one of his large t-shirts and a pair of warm sweatpants. She changed clothes in the bathroom and when she came back, he had already changed the bed’s sheets for clean ones. When she walked in, he gave her an interested look, as if he liked seeing her float in his larger clothes, his tail coiling upward as proof of said interest, and she found herself growing all red as she walked up to the bed.

“Well,” she breathed almost shakily, “I’ll see you in the morning then?”

“Only if you want to see me,” he joked as he stepped up to her.

She gave a giggle in response before she saw him begin to raise his arms, and she gladly slotted herself against him for a warm hug she found absolute delight in. She had always loved his hugs. He was tall and had long arms that covered almost all of her; being in his embrace felt like the safest and warmest place in Assiah, and that place was hers. She felt him plant a kiss on her forehead, and judging by the warmth that spread through her insides at that, she knew she’d grow to really enjoy the height difference between them.

“Goodnight, Shiemi.”

“Goodnight, Rin,” she whispered back.

When he left her alone in the room, she knew she would never want to leave his side, and that now it was much too late to ever think about turning back. She already missed him.

She took a deep breath through the nose, tightened her fists with courage, and darted after him to catch him in his room. No wall would separate them now.

* * *

When Shiemi woke up the next morning, it took her a long time to realize she was not in her bed, but when she did, she didn’t think it strange either. A source of warmth and softness was pressed up against her back and draped over her waist lazily, and every inch of her being told her this was the safest place in the world, so she laid there, at peace. She smiled to herself, taking the large hand that was laying flat against her stomach into her own and bringing it up to hold it like she would a plush toy. His fingers and knuckles were rough with callouses and old scars, but the skin itself was still weirdly soft, like beach sand warmed up in the sun. She now knew the rest of him was like that too.

Something buried itself and nuzzled in her hair, a sigh reaching up to her ear as the hand she held closed around her fingers.

“Wha’ time izzit?”

She looked up at the digital clock sitting on the desk next to the bed. A metal arm was laying there next to it.

“A little bit past eleven,” she replied with a giggle. “Looks like we slept in.”

A light grunt was the answer, and he moved, using his arm to hold her closer, and she ended up turning around to face him. Only half-awake with his face half-buried in his pillow, Rin’s blue eyes shone at her from under fluttering white eyelashes and he smiled tiredly. He had a bit of dried drool on the side of his mouth, which she reached up to wipe. Suddenly she found herself entangled in his legs and tail and they were sharing a lazy kiss, and she thought to herself that she wouldn’t mind waking up like this every morning from now on.

As things escalated and slowly became more passionate, he hoisted her up on top of him with his one good arm and she supported herself on his chest, looking down at him lovingly as she straddled his waist, before reaching down and laying right there with her head under his chin, similarly to how they spent their evening the night before. With her arms wrapping around his head to go play with his glorious bed hair, she looked up at him and smiled, truly at peace and comfortable.

“I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on mornings like this this whole time,” she spoke up, causing him to appear surprised and then laugh out loud. “Not funny! Hhng… will you forgive me for taking this long? It’s kind of embarrassing...”

“Mmh,” he hummed, purposefully looking like he was seriously giving it some thought, “I don’t know. You  _ did  _ make me wait an awful long time. I wonder what you could do to convince me to forgive you, mmmh…”

She jokingly slapped his shoulder as he laughed, then he bent his head down so it was closer to hers, and brushed his nose on hers. He slightly raised himself up against his pillow so they were both more comfortable.

“It’s fine,” he said softly. “You know, I’m a lot more patient than people give me credit for. Well, with certain things at least. For you, I was glad to wait. I’m a patient demon, you know.”

Rin looked at her in a way that dug deep inside her, and without noticing she crept up against him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Their noses brushed again.

“I love you, Shiemi,” he murmured fondly.

“I love you too, Rin,” she whispered back, nuzzling him even more as her heart fluttered out of her chest.

She leaned down and kissed him lovingly for what felt like an age, and she knew she would never tire of feeling all of him on her like this. When they separated, he smirked, devilishly, and that fanged grin made her heart twirl in her chest.

“And now, dare I say, my patience rewards me! Mwahahaha!,” he fakely laughed as he moved the covers wrapped around them to take a peek inside, eyes glinting in mischievous curiosity.

She couldn’t contain a ticklish giggle when he bent down and kissed along her collarbone, and as he slowly descended down her chest with a trail of light kisses, brushing his fangs lightly along pink skin, she cradled his head like it was something precious, closing her eyes as the new sensations took over the pit of her stomach and-

Quite suddenly, the door creaked open, and a gruff voice said:

“Oi Okumura, you’re la- Oh sweet Buddha! Sorry, sorry!”

They both froze in place, and when they whirled around, the door had already closed and they could hear voices echoing on the other side.

“What’s wrong? Is he here?,” a familiar muffled voice they identified as Yukio’s asked.

“He’s  _ busy _ ,” Suguro couldn’t contain manly giggles as he said those words, and she felt Rin’s body heat shoot up under her, like a volcano ready to rise.

Next thing she knew, Rin was scrambling and stumbling out of bed, hurriedly putting on a pair of shorts as he darted for the door, now only partially nude, yelling out in an undignified tone:

“GODDAMNIT SUGURO! What the Hell man, what happened to privacy?!”

Rin opened and closed the door, leaving Shiemi alone in his room, holding the blanket to cover herself with, staring dumbfounded at the door. While everyone began to argue and yell, she calmly got out of bed as well and put on the pyjamas Rin gave her the night before, feeling her face redden as she struggled not to laugh out loud at the absurdity of the situation. Of course she had to be caught on the first night she spent here! Secrets weren’t allowed in their circle of friends!

“That’s how we usually wake you up, dumbass! How was I supposed to know you had a ‘guest’!”

“She’s-!”

“A guest? Nii-san, do you… have someone here?”

“As a matter of fact, I do! Don’t act like it’s surprising!”

“Wow, Okumura-kun, you finally scored! Who is it, huh? Huh?”

“Shima, it’s not our business-”

“Oh shoot! That’s Moriyama’s coat! You two finally hooked up-”

“Can you guys  _ leave _ ?! Why are you all in my apartment? Yukio, why did you let these idiots in here?!”

“I let them in because we were all supposed to meet today. It’s not my fault you timed all this wrong-”

“Timed this wrong?! Why didn’t anyone remind me we were meeting?!”

“I did, you just never check your emails.”

“Who sends emails in this day and age?! You coulda texted me, four-eyes!”

“How did you not hear us come in, we made plenty of noise. Thought your demon hearing could hear even a fly fart down the hall!”

“ _ I was distracted!! _ ”

As she listened in to Shima laughing out loud and Rin trying to save face, Shiemi smiled to herself, finally managing to condense her giggles into a fondness that warmed her heart once more.

She loved that demon. It was as simple as that. She definitely wouldn’t mind if her mornings could be like this, full of love, chaos and surprises, and she was ready to become used to it.

She opened the door and smiled at everyone.

“Good morning!”


End file.
